At present there are a large number of bed-ridden people around the world. It is envisaged that as the life expectancy of people increases, due to advances made in the fields of medicine and other types of healthcare, the number of bed-ridden people may increase.
Many nurses and hospital staff are injured when attempting to lift bed-ridden patients from their beds. In particular, despite rigorous training for lifting heavy objects, workers such as nurses often find it necessary to adopt postures which are awkward in order to lift heavy objects such as patients. Thus, many nurses suffer from back injuries as a result of lifting patients or transferring patients from one bed to another.
In addition, some patients, for example patients with severe burns, require extremely delicate and careful handling during bed transfers. This applies equally to patients leaving an operating theatre, such as a heart by-pass patient. In some instances, a rigid backboard is forced beneath the patient so that the patient can be lifted from one bed to another following an operation or injury. Forcing a backboard under a patient with severe burns can damage the already delicate wounds and increase the likelihood of infection. Furthermore, the force and nature of the movements necessary to insert a backboard under a patient are such that the patient is often subjected to comparatively “rough treatment.”
Various attempts have been made to provide a patient transfer trolley adapted to lift a patient from a bed and transport the patient. One such example can be found in international patent publication no. WO91/07158. A transfer trolley according to this document comprises an arm from which a number of rigid tongues extend. The rigid tongues generally form a bed-like surface and are capable of supporting a patient. The tongues are hollow and could be described as flatted tube-like structures; a hole is located at the free end of each tongue (i.e. the end not connected to the arm). Each of the tongues is covered in a resilient sleeve or sheath and contains a plunger within the hollow cavity.
The sheath is longer than the tongue which it surrounds and the excess material is inserted into the hollow cavity of the tube (where there is a connection between the sheath and the plunger) and also accommodated by a concertina arrangement of part of the sheath on the outside of the tongue.
A wedge shaped block separates the concertina arrangement on the top surface of the tongue from the rest of the sheath.
When it is decided that a patient is to be transferred from a bed, the transfer trolley according to WO91/07158 is manoeuvred into a position next to and parallel with the patient's bed. Compressed air is introduced into the sheaths and this action drives the portion of the sheath contained within the hollow cavity of the tongue outwards through the hole in the free end of the tongue.
As the sheath is attached to the plunger in each respective tongue, a cylinder of sheath inflates and unfurls in a direction away from the trolley and underneath the patient. Once the patient is supported on the inflated cylinder, the trolley is moved towards the patient's bed; thus the wedge shaped section (which remains stationary relative to the patient) is now closer to the arm and this has the effect of pulling the sheaths, with the patient supported thereon, towards the arm so that the portions of the sheaths that support the patient slide over the respective tongues. The weight of the patient is now supported by the tongues and not by the inflated sheath.
To place the patient on a new bed, the operation is generally reversed.
There are a number of problems which have been experienced with the device disclosed in WO91/07158, particularly when operated by personnel unfamiliar with the operations, which include the poor operation of the concertina section of the sleeve, poor control of the section of the sleeve at the interface of the smooth section and the concertina section.
The present invention seeks to ameliorate at least some of the problems associated with the prior art.